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CCCS Remembering Childhood Lecture Series
presented
Faith Ringgold
renowned African-American children's
book author and artist
By
John Miller
On Wednesday September 17 in the Gordon Theater, the Rutgers
University Center for Children and Childhood Studies launched
the Remembering Childhood: Meet The Authors, Hear
Their Stories series with Faith Ringgold. The
first author of three in the series, which also includes Tanya
Maria Barrientos, October 15, 2003, and Michael
Chabban, November 19, 2003, Ringgold is renowned for her art
as well as for
children's books inspired by that art. An audience of 300 or
more showed up for a slide show and commentary on her life¹s
work-- the numerous paintings, quilts and other works of art,
and their significance to her books for children.
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The
event started with some opening remarks made by the Center¹s
director, Dr. Myra Bluebond-Langner, and Dean of CCAS, Margaret
Marsh, concerning the center and the donors who have made
the Center possible. Professor Langner then introduced Faith
Ringgold and her work. She also noted that Ms. Ringgold
is the recipient of more than 75 awards, fellowships and
degrees, including 15 Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees. |
Myra
Bluebond-Langner with Faith Ringgold |
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Faith
Ringgold started her lecture by acknowleding that she was- 72
years- and that it has been 30 years since she last presented
at Rutgers in 1973. She recalled what "maturing as an artist"
meant to her and that she matured as an artist in 1963, saying
that to mature means one realizes that, "as an artist you
don¹t need anybody¹s help or permission." Ringgold
went on to describe how being a black artist in during the civil
rights era affected her work, "at the time of black power,
art was supposed to be
minimalist art. Subtle, all innuendo and blank space."
 She
blended that subtle innuendo with overt political statements
by making words the center of a number of her works, such as
a painting in which the center piece were the words "Black
Power" written with ten black faces, surrounded by 90 white
faces connoting, at the time, the 10% of Americans who were
black compared to the 90% who were white. The message by innuendo
was "white power." She began to paint in all different
shades of black when the "Black is beautiful" movement
came into being. One of the first paintings she sold combined
shades of black with just the three words- love black life-
each word one of eight triangles positioned to form a square.
Another painting, formulated on the same template, was Free
Angela (Davis) America. One striking piece was an American flag
where the red stripes were manipulated to spell the letters
of a certain racial slur, while the word ³Die² was
subtly woven into the fifty stars.
 During
the 70¹s Ringgold worked in a new art form, a certain type
of Tibetan painting. When Ringgold¹s mother died in 1981,
she began making quilts in tribute to her. She says, "during
that time I was trying to get my autobiography published, but
no one wanted to print my story. In 1983, I began writing stories
on my quilts, as an alternative. I have 'written' thirty story
quilts since then . They are written the way I write my children¹s
stories - each section written on a quilt is a page." During
the intervening period between 1983 and getting her first book,
Tar Beach, published in 1991, Ringgold made several
series of story quilts, including, among others, the Black/White
series, Street Stories series, Cassie's Word quilt, a quilt
of the Oklahoma City bombing, and a quilt of two friends who
wrote a story about each other under their skirt, alluding to
something her mother always told her about "keep her skirt
down." Oprah Winfrey bought her Sunflower Quilting Bee
in 1991, and Ringgold hasn't seen it since, as Oprah hasn't
allowed her to borrow it, Ringgold noted mockingly.
 Faith
Ringgold's first book, Tar Beach, "a book for
children of all ages," was published by Random House in
1991 and has won more than 30 awards, including a Caldecott
honor and the Coretta Scott King Award for the best illustrated
children's book of 1991. The book is based on the story quilt,
"Tar Beach," from Ringgold's The
Woman on the Bridge series of 1988. It is in the permanent
collection of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Ringgold
was very surprised when a friend told her that she had gotten
"Tar Beach" into the Guggenheim. She had
even demonstrated against Guggenheim for not displaying the
work of black women. Guggenheim has had "Tar Beach"
since 1988, but has never displayed it, as far as the author
recollects.
Writing
children¹s books has been very easy and natural, as "all
children are good at art," Ringgold remarked. This has
probably allowed her to put a number of adult issues into perspective
for children through art in her books, and also the works of
art themselves, as in the Oklahoma City quilt above. In addition
to Tar Beach, Ringgold¹s other literary works
include: Aunt Harriet¹s Underground Railroad in the
Sky, My Dream of Martin Luther King Jr., Dinner
at Aunt Annie's House-about black reconstruction in the
early 1900's, and If a Bus Could Talk-- about Rosa
Parks.
John
Miller is the copy editor of the Rutgers-Camden student paper,
The Gleaner. Reprinted with permission!
September
22, 2003
Faith
Ringgold's Web site
http://www.faithringgold.com/
A
Chronological List of Reproductions
http://www.faithringgold.com/ringgold/images.htm
How
the People Became Color Blind
- a story to rewrite, illustrate, comment on, question and enjoy
http://www.faithringgold.com/ringgold/story.htm
Books
and Videos by Faith Ringgold
http://www.faithringgold.com/ringgold/books.htm
Reading
Lady, includes lesson plans, study questions, and activities
http://www.readinglady.com/Author_Studies/Faith_Ringgold/faith_ringgold.html
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